自我介绍

I am a Mancunian by birth and my family still lives there. Despite leaving Manchester many years ago I still possess those qualities associated with northerners: friendly, welcoming, honest, grounded, and open to new experiences. I was brought up within the Church of England but gravitated towards the Anglo-Catholic tradition. Over time I grew tired of wandering within the shadows and reflections and found myself moving in the direction of Rome and eventually became a Roman Catholic. I decided the way forward was to be within a monastic community. At Downside Abbey near Bath in Somerset I became a Benedictine monk, but after completing studies for ordination, decided that this was not going to be the way forward after all. I left the community and moved to London where I trained to be a teacher of Religious Education. The move had been traumatic and for ten years never returned. I took a flat in East London, in Hackney, known then as a dangerous place. I taught those who became murderers and those who were murdered. It was a challenge, but I lived locally and never had any cause for concern. My first school as a teacher was in Southall, twelve hundred Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims, and not a Christian in sight. I loved it and stayed for eight years. Next was Hackney Free and Parochial where I created a school chapel, furnished with contemporary works of art, all paid for by years of fundraising. The last was Cardinal Pole in Hackney. It was a Catholic School, characterized by an ethos of fear and always feeling never quite good enough. The students were cool, but the management took their style from dictators of old. When the opportunity arrived, I took early retirement, moved to Arles in the south of France, and became an AirBnB host. After three years I moved to Morocco to establish a new AirBnB: Riad El Rahala. In Essaouira I hope to find ways to contribute to the local community and not simply be an observer. I am by nature liberal in my thinking, conscious of the need to safeguard the planet, to create hope for those who have little, to respect all life, and detest the worrying march to the right which infiltrates, distorts, and hinders vast areas of life. I have a great respect for the spiritual, and the beauty within creation and life. I believe in the power of beauty to transform all of life, and believe hierarchical structures on the whole stifle growth and development. My interests include collecting antiques, modern ceramics, and art. I enjoy music, books, films, history, travel, cycling, walking, good food and wine, and ancient architecture. If I had a motto it would be along the lines of: ‘think kindly, speak generously, and act on reflection’.